Built in 2000, the Collierville Popeyes measures 3,226 square feet and is on 0.8 acres on the south side of West Poplar east of Poplar View Parkway. The Shelby County Assessor of Property appraised it this year at $917,900.

The 3,744-square-foot Bartlett Popeyes was built in 1985 and is situated on 1.2 acres on the south side of Stage between Bartlett Boulevard and Elmore Park Road. The assessor’s 2013 appraisal is $763,600.

And the Austin Peay Popeyes, built in 2004 and measuring 2,302 square feet, is on 1.3 acres on the southeast side of Austin Peay southwest of Joslyn Street. Its 2013 appraisal is $622,200.

In conjunction with the purchases, Spirit Master Funding filed a $7.5 million deed of trust through Citibank NA. Gregg A. Seibert signed the loan as senior vice president of Spirit SPE Manager LLC, the managing entity behind Spirit Master Funding LLC.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Daily News staff

National Foundation for Transplants Names New CEO

The National Foundation for Transplants has a new leader.

The foundation has appointed Connie Gonitzke to serve as president and CEO of the Memphis-based national nonprofit.

Gonitzke rose through the foundation’s ranks, joining the organization in 2002 as a patient advocate before being appointed director of resource development in 2006 and senior vice president of development in 2008.

As president and CEO, Gonitzke will focus on raising the foundation’s national profile and position and increasing philanthropic efforts.

Gonitzke has been a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals since 2005, earning the Certified Fund Raising Executive credential. She also has volunteered and served on various boards and in leadership positions in numerous community and religious organizations, including the West Tennessee Transplant Association and as president of the local AFP chapter.

Founded in 1983, the National Foundation for Transplants has generated nearly $65 million to help transplant patients overcome financial obstacles.

– Amos Maki

County Trustee Launches Workshop for Seniors

Shelby County Trustee David Lenoir is introducing a new workshop series for seniors.

Titled “Home Sweet Home,” it focuses on things such as property taxes and the importance of properly transferring real estate to heirs.

The workshops will explain to seniors the importance of properly transferring property and provide a few simple tips. The trustee is partnering with Memphis Area Legal Services and the Shelby County Probate Court Clerk to share legal guidance to workshop attendees, and trustee staff will explain tax benefits available to seniors, veterans and the disabled.

The first workshop is Friday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ruth Tate Senior Center, 1620 Marjorie St.

Other workshops will be held Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. to noon at the McWherter Senior Center, 1355 Estate Drive; Dec. 11 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Orange Mound Senior Center, 2590 Park Ave.; Dec. 12 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Frayser/Raleigh Senior Center, 3985 Egypt Central Road; and Dec. 13 from 10 a.m. to noon at the J.K. Lewis Senior Center, 1188 North Parkway.

– Andy Meek

City Hires Project Manager for Sewer Rebuild

The city of Memphis has hired Black & Veatch, a global engineering, consulting and construction company, to be project manager of the city’s decade-long evaluation and rehabilitation of the city’s sanitary sewer system.

The $250 million project is the result of a consent decree among the city, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Tennessee Clean Water Network regarding sewer overflows that discharged sewage into the Mississippi River at Memphis.

The sewage was not treated in the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The decree’s goal is to reduce the number of those overflows and discharges.

Overland Park, Kan.-based Black & Veatch, which was selected through a competitive bidding process, has a Memphis office and has worked with the city on similar projects over the years.

The Memphis City Council this month approved the first year’s funding of $25 million. The project is being financed through a state revolving loan fund, with the city paying back the principal and interest with money from the city’s sewer fees.

– Bill Dries

US Budget Deficit Falls 24 Percent in October

The partial government shutdown and steep federal spending cuts helped lower the U.S. federal deficit last month, signaling more improvement in the government’s finances.

The Treasury Department says the government ran a deficit of $91.6 billion in October, down 24 percent from the same month a year ago. The decline comes after the government ran an annual deficit of $680 billion for the 2013 budget year that ended on Sept. 30, the lowest in five years.

Spending fell 5 percent in October to $290.5 billion, partly because of the shutdown and because of across-the-board spending cuts put in place earlier this year.

Tax revenue rose 8 percent in October compared with a year earlier to $199 billion. Higher taxes and modest economic growth have helped boost revenue this year.

– The Associated Press

Report Says Refugees a Net Positive for Tennessee

A report by the state’s Fiscal Review Committee has found that refugees bring in more money to Tennessee than they cost the state in entitlements. But that’s not the message some of the lawmakers who asked for the report want to hear.

Due to a lack of data, the author of the report had to make some assumptions, including that refugees consume public services and pay taxes at a similar rate to the average Tennessean.

“We don’t know if it’s flawed. But we don’t know if it’s accurate,” state Rep. Joe Carr (R-Lascassas) told WPLN-TV. “So if we don’t know if it’s accurate or flawed, what was the point of the study?”

Carr serves on a subcommittee of the Joint Government Operations Committee that has been working on the assumption that there are hidden costs to resettling Tennessee’s estimated 58,000 refugees.

The report, issued on Tuesday, Nov. 12, estimates that Tennessee taxpayers spent $40 million last year to educate school-age refugees and $26 million to cover refugees on TennCare. That’s about $66 million in costs. But refugees are estimated to have paid more than $103 million in state taxes.

The report concludes that by a conservative estimate, refugees and their descendants have accounted for about 0.7 percent of the state’s population since 1990. Over that same period, the state has spent at least $753 million on services to that population, and brought in at least $1.387 billion in revenue from them.

Some refugees worry that the resettlement debate has religious undertones.

Mohamed Hassan is from Somalia and is Muslim. He said that some of the lawmakers interested in the refugee situation have also spoken out against Islam and introduced legislation targeting Muslims.

“The language and everything has changed,” Hassan said. “But I’m under the impression that the intention is still there, going solely after certain people.”

Carr said the only motivation is trying to figure out if the federal government is shifting the cost of resettlement onto the states.